About Coffee

Having said it’s not all about the coffee, the coffee does have a rather large part to play in the grand scheme of things. I also have fairly strong opinions about coffee, which I expand upon here. However, before you read on, please understand that almost everything is about taste, and taste is a subjective thing. So, if you find yourself disagreeing with me, it doesn’t mean that you drink bad coffee, or even that I think you drink bad coffee. It just means that your taste differs from mine. As long as you’re passionate about your coffee (or cake, or at a push, tea), we’ll get along just fine :-).

To me, pretty much the perfect coffee form is the espresso. It is, to quote Tazza d’Oro, the famous espresso bar in Roma, “The Queen of Coffees” (“La Regina dei Caffe”). Short, strong, thick, smooth, it’s everything that’s good in coffee condensed down to its essentials. Not to everyone’s tastes, I’ll freely admit, but to me, it’s the pinnacle of good coffee. Read more…

The alternative to espresso is the cafetiere of coffee, sometimes known as the French Press. Under-rated and under-used, except in the home, I make most of my coffee using a cafetiere. It shouldn’t be seen as second-best: I drink espresso at certain times of the day and cafetiere coffee at others. Each fills its own niche. Read more…

Lattes, cappuccinos, flat whites… I could bore you with the technical differences, but for the sake of argument, let’s just refer to them as “coffee-flavoured milk drinks” and not get too bogged down with the distinctions. An alternative to the cafetiere if you want a long drink, they have their place and you’ll often find me with a latte. Read more…

Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with filter coffee. Filter coffee is where I started my coffee journey, the first step on the road from instant. I’ve had some very good cups of filter coffee in my time (the one in the picture was one of them).

It’s just, well, not how I’d choose to have my coffee these days. Read more…